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Friday, March 29, 2024

Mines greenlights $2-b Comval mining project

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The Mines bureau has given the Nationwide Development Corp. the go-ahead to work on a $2-billion mining project in Compostela Valley, Mindanao.

“We can now proceed with developing, constructing and operating the country’s gold mining project,”  Nadecor chairman Jose Ricafort  declared on the heels of the  Mines bureau’s  approval of the mining firm’s feasibility study before year-end. 

MGB approved last December 29th Nadecor’s “Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility” for the King-King Gold Mine Project located in Compostela Valley.  

For his part, Jose P. de Jesus, Nadecor president, said: “With the recent issuance of the environmental compliance certificate, this MGB approval paves the way for the development, construction and operation of the project. 

 The project is covered by a mineral production sharing agreement between the government and Nadecor, whose minesite has an estimated value of $2 billion, by far the country’s biggest gold mineral resources. 

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Nadecor chairman Ricafort clarified that MGB’s order of approval was officially sent to Nadecor, “and such order does not mention at all any connection between St. Augustine and the King-King Project.”  

Ricafort explained that Nadecor terminated its business relationship with St. Augustine as early as March 26, 2012. “In fact, St. Augustine, invoking an arbitration clause, sent a notice of dispute with Nadecor regarding such rescission and subsequently reiterated the same,” Ricafort added. 

Ricafort declared: “St. Augustine is no longer a partner of Nadecor in developing the King-King Project.”

Nadecor currently figures  in an intra-corporate dispute now pending before the Supreme Court between two contending shareholder blocs, one led by Jose Ricafort and the other by Conrado Calalang.  Both Ricafort and Calalang are erstwhile friends. 

In a complex twist of events, the Calalang bloc claimed that it had forged a joint venture with St. Augustine Gold and Copper Limited over the objections of the Ricafort-De Jesus bloc, “precisely because the Ricafort-De Jesus Board terminated its agreement with St. Augustine as early as 2012.”  

 

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